The Best Thing That Can Happen Is An Accident
by BLUEanimeGIRL025
Summary: After all the things that Konoha had to face in order for Sasuke and Naruto's children to be born safely, now the twin girls -Hemiko and Cheri- are just starting their teen years. Sequel to "It Was Just Another Accident! Really!"
1. Introduction to the Life of Cheri Uchiha

_**Disclaimer:**__ I do not own Naruto. _

_**Summary:**__ After all the things that Konoha had had to face in order for Sasuke and Naruto's children to be born safely, now the twin girls are grown, and just starting their teen years. It seems that not only Naruto and Sasuke are playing favorites with the girls, but the rest of Konoha as well. Hemiko and Cheri are remarkably like their parents, but how will this affect their growing up?_

_**A/N:**__ So, here we go again huh?_

_It's great isn't it? haha_

_Or is it? I don't know. Review and tell me what you think. Reviews make me happy. They encourage me to write faster ;)_

_Anyway, sorry if there are a few typos here and there, or if the story seems a bit rushed. I didn't really look it all the way through.

* * *

_

"Hemiko! Hemiko open the door! I'm seriously not in the mood for this today, I have to use the bathroom! ...hurry up we're gonna be late!" Cheri grimaced as she received no response. It was like this every morning before school. Hemiko spent too many hours worrying about her looks. Not that she needed to worry; everyone simply _adored_ her. Not like Cheri. _She _was sort of... the troublemaker - because no one really noticed her if she did anything else. Everyone simply knew her as the class clown; Hemiko's sister. The only reason anyone even knew her name was because she acted stupid, and because she lived with Hemiko. Not that Cheri really cared, of course.

"You can use the bathroom at school," Hemiko finally replied, her voice muffled because of the door.

"No I can't," Hemiko answered, annoyed. "Because I won't have time to because we're going to be late because of _you! _Now hurry _up_!" She pounded on the door at the last word for emphasis.

"Well if you're so worried about it then why don't you just go ahead and leave?"

"You know dad won't let me leave without you! I tried that already, remember?" Cheri rolled her eyes. Hemiko already knew this.

"Well, we should be old enough for him to stop being so protective by now." She _finally_ opened the door, sweeping her long black hair over her shoulder. She had gotten in trouble plenty of times because of that hair. It was simply too long, and she never put it up. The teachers said that during a mission, her hair would become a weakness; it might get caught on something, or pulled by an enemy. But Hemiko simply refused to cut it - everyone thought it was just _so _beautiful. "Just because we were nearly killed as _infants _doesn't mean anything to us now. We're nearly fourteen for godsakes!"

"To tell you the truth, I don't really care about that right now," Cheri replied, hurrying inside. "All I know is that we need to hurry or we're going to get in trouble for being late. _Again._"

Once out of the bathroom -Cheri didn't spend _nearly_ as much time in there as Hemiko did- Cheri went to the living room to say goodbye to her fathers. "Hey daddy," she said, quickly giving Sasuke a kiss on the cheek. "See ya dad," she said, throwing her arms around Naruto. He chuckled and kissed her forehead. "Hemiko!" she called. "Hemiko come on, it's time to go." She was answered with silence as she approached the door. "Hey!" she exclaimed, glancing down. "Hemiko's shoes are already gone!"

Sasuke and Naruto shared a look. Sasuke heaved a sigh. "She must have left already."

Naruto laughed a bit at that. "That's just like Hemiko. She is so like you Sasuke; she doesn't wait on anybody."

Cheri gave a frustrated sigh as she slammed the door angrily behind her. So now Hemiko was the one waiting on _her_? As was expected, Cheri was late for school. As it happened, she arrived _just_ _after_ the teacher did, but Hemiko was already in her seat, so Cheri was the only one that got in trouble. The teacher gave her a big speech in front of the entire class, and then a detention. Everyone laughed at her for it. She didn't care. She took her seat in the back with her friends and let her head hit the table in front of her with a quiet _thump_.

Cheri was not completely alone; she did have a few friends. Ayame and Amaya Hyuga - twin girls like Cheri and Hemiko, but these two were identical. Haru Hatake and Kiyoshi Akimichi. Mika Lee and Yasashiku Nara. Growing up, these had been the only ones who would hang around with Cheri, because even as a child Hemiko had run with the popular crowd. Cheri's little group of friends had always been considered "outcasts."

And apparently Cheri's two fathers knew all of their parents. Ayame and Amaya's parents names were Neji Hyuga and Hinata Hyuga. Evidently the twins' parents were cousins or some such, forced to marry and reproduce for the sake of the Hyuga clan, and for that reason Ayame and Amaya were outcast. Haru Hatake was the child of Kakashi Hatake and Iruka Umino - he was the only one who, like Cheri and Hemiko, had two male parents. Haru was the oldest of three; both of his younger brothers not yet old enough to attend the academy.

Kiyoshi Akimichi was the oldest son of Choji Akimichi and Ino Akimichi (formerly known as Ino Yamanaka). He only had one sibling; a little sister who was only just turning seven. Mika Lee was the daughter of Rock Lee and the former Sakura Haruno. Mika was surprisingly beautiful - thankfully she received her father's black, silky hair, and her mothers very normal looking eyebrows - but she was particularly clumsy, which was probably the reason for her bad reputation. Yasashiku, unlike any of the others, only had one parent - Shikamaru Nara. Rumors said that the mother of the child was Temari of the Sand Village, sister of the Fifth Kazekage, who had a notable reputation for spending most of her time with Shikamaru whenever she was in town, but Shikamaru was mum on the subject.

"Jeez," Amaya sighed.

"That really sucks Cheri," Ayame amended. Mika patted Cheri on the back comfortingly.

"Well at least I won't be alone in detention today," Yasashiku said yawning.

"You've got detention again today Yasashiku?" Amaya asked curiously, glancing around Cheri's slumped form at him. It was a bit of an open secret that Amaya liked him, but nobody ever really said anything about it.

Yasashiku shrugged indifferently, crossed his arms and put his head down. "Don't I always?" he asked, sounding bored. "Maybe I'll ditch today. Dad wouldn't care. He never really pays attention to what time I come home." Cheri rolled her eyes at that. Yasashiku thought that he was being neglected, but Shikamaru turned out to actually be quite a good parent. Cheri remembered the first time Yasashiku earned a detention - it was no surprise that he did; it's not like he was a troublemaker or anything, he just liked to sleep a lot and not pay attention. The reason why she remembered that day was because Shikamaru had dashed over to their house in a panic, wide-eyed and asking if any of them had seen Yasashiku. Hemiko, of course, had not a clue - she probably didn't even know who Yasashiku was - but Cheri had been able to fill him in. He'd been grateful, but had shrugged off his panic as if it had been nothing once he learned that his son was alright.

Cheri wasn't sure what Amaya saw in Yasashiku. He had dirty blonde hair, which he always kept up in a spiky ponytail just like Shikamaru's, and he was attractive enough, she supposed, but... he was _Yasashiku_ of all people. Lazy, uncaring, boring, always-in-detention _Yasashiku_. Plus he was like a brother to Cheri, so that was probably why she just didn't see him that way.

When class was over that day, Hemiko waited until all the people not staying for detention had shuffled out of the room, hesitating by the door. "I'll tell dad where you are, okay?" she said. Cheri was still furious with her, so she didn't bother to reply. She didn't even look at her. "Sorry you got in trouble," Hemiko continued. She didn't sound very sorry. Cheri growled under her breath.

"C'mon Hemiko!" one of Hemiko's friends called from outside somewhere.

Hemiko was immediately all smiles and giggles. "Okay I'm coming!" she called, scurrying out the door.

"You're sister's a real stuck up bitch," Yasashiku muttered. Cheri nodded. She and all her friends had already pretty much covered that topic by now.

* * *

That night at home, Cheri was stuck eating a cold meal in the kitchen. She had come home to see the dirty dishes from supper already in the sink, and the table cleared of everything except for one plate. Assuming that the plate was hers, Cheri sat without washing up first, and began to eat slowly, ignoring the sounds of her fathers teaching Hemiko some sort of technique outside. The house was deafeningly quiet, which only made the sounds of her family's lighthearted laughs seem even louder. Cheri suddenly felt very alone, but it was like this pretty much every day anyway.

She was just finishing up when the others came inside. She had heard them coming and stood as if to leave the room, but she was a bit late, because they all walked in just then, with Hemiko in the lead. "Hey sis," she laughed. "I was gonna wait for you so that you wouldn't have to eat alone, but dad told me I should go ahead. I hope you don't mind."

_If you really cared about me you would have waited anyway,_ Cheri thought darkly.

"Hey Cheri," her dad - Naruto - said grinning from the door. "I didn't know that you had come home yet."

The three of them stood there in the doorway, smiling and laughing, out of breath as they slipped out of their shoes. Cheri grabbed her pack and left the room without clearing her plate.

She slammed the door when she got to her room and sat down to try to study, but tears of frustration kept blurring her vision. A few minutes later, she could hear Hemiko entering her own bedroom, laughing. It sounded like she was having friends over. And since when was she allowed to have friends over on a school night? If Cheri had asked to have people over, _she_ wouldn't have been allowed.

Unable to put up with it anymore, she hurriedly began to pack. She only needed a few things - her school supplies, clothes for the night and for tomorrow, a book she was reading and a pack of cards. She'd move the rest of her things tomorrow. With all her things gathered up in her arms, Cheri flipped off the light switch and left the room.

In order to get to the part of the mansion that she was headed to, Cheri would have to cross the living room, and she'd hoped that neither of her fathers would be in there, but sure enough there was Sasuke Uchiha lounging on the couch with his eyes closed. Cheri tried to sneak past without him noticing, but he opened his eyes just as she was about halfway across. "What are you doing?" he asked curiously.

"Nothing," she huffed. "I'm just moving into a different room."

"What's wrong with the one you're already in?" he asked, sitting up.

"I just don't like it." He crossed the room over to her, but she tried to ignore him. When he tried to take some of the things from her to lighten her burden, she turned out of his reach. "I've got it," she said heatedly, and continued walking.

"Well alright then," he said, shrugging and going back to his place on the couch. She snorted once she was out of earshot. Sasuke had never cared that much about her. If anybody in this family loved her at all it'd be Naruto, but he hardly ever had time for her now, what with trying to become Hokage and all. Why did he have to be the stupid Hokage anyway? Why was it such a big deal? Wasn't family more important?

Cheri stomped her way across the mansion.

She eventually found a room that would do. At least it had a bed in it - most of the unused rooms didn't. Maybe her fathers would help her move her own bed into one of these rooms sometime if they weren't too busy doing something with _Hemiko_.

After placing her things on the bed, Cheri stepped back out into the dusty hallway. Here, the mansion was quiet. Cheri often explored the expansive house when she was bored, and she had become quite familiar with the part of the mansion that nobody used, but still she had to wonder _why_ it was never used. There didn't seem to be anything particularly wrong with the rooms, if you ignored the dust. Perhaps when her fathers had moved in they had just picked a random part of the mansion to spend their time in, but she still couldn't see why they wouldn't enter a certain part of their own home for over fourteen years or so. Why did such a small family need such a big place to live anyway? What on _earth_ were her fathers thinking when they moved into this place?

Some parts of the mansion made Cheri shiver. It was so quiet and empty, and in some places you could hear the wind blowing in from an old broken window or something... it was like a ghost town. Why did one little part of their house seem so happy and alive, and yet the other so dark and full of emptiness? Cheri wondered all the time - who lived here before? Who used these rooms? What did they use them for? What were the people like? What happened to them, and why did they leave the mansion at all? Did _they_ ever use all the rooms in the mansion, or did they leave some abandoned as Cheri's family did? So many questions... These empty halls seemed to be filled with so many broken memories. Cheri could feel it every time she explored that place.

That night Cheri wandered around from hallway to hallway, her hands brushing each dusty wall and each dirty, closed door. Old paintings and portraits hung on the walls - some of them broken and some of them so old that you couldn't even make out the faces of those in the picture. Paint was peeling from the walls and the doors around her. There were very few windows in any of the hallways. This place made her feel so incredibly empty inside herself. She felt so sad, so alone. Where were these emotions coming from? It was so disappointing to see such a beautiful place deserted like this.

Still wandering aimlessly, lost in her own thoughts, Cheri began opening the doors in the hallways. At least that would improve the place a bit. She felt it could use to be a bit more open anyway. So she opened every door in the next two or three hallways before finally coming across one that was locked. She jiggled the handle but the door wouldn't budge. She pushed. No response.

She wondered, what could be beyond this door? Who was the last person to open it? Why did they lock it? Eventually she managed to get the thing open - a locked door was usually no problem for a ninja, even for a ninja-in-training, but the thing was so old she'd been half afraid it would fall apart at her touch. When finally Cheri had the door open, she peeked inside and saw that there seemed to be nothing of any interest to see at all. There didn't seem to be any windows in there either, so it was quite dark, and this one was even more dusty than any of the other rooms; when she'd opened the door, a great cloud of dust had blown right into her face, causing her to cough and gag.

Cheri shut the door - there would be no point in going in there until it was light outside again. Well at least now she had something to do the next day, but would she be able to remember her way back to this door? She figured that she would, since she'd left most of the doors open leading to her way here. So, finally, she retreated to her newly adopted room and went to bed. Upon looking at her watch she discovered that it was later than she had thought it was.

* * *

It was late. The clock on the wall showed that it was almost three in the morning. Naruto was sitting at the table in the kitchen drinking coffee, dark rings under his eyes. Sasuke had woken upon feeling that his spouse was no longer in bed with him - he and Naruto had developed that kind of bond over the years. It was a comforting feeling, but it was painful whenever one or the other was away for too long.

Sasuke walked into the room, quiet so as not to disturb the silent Kyuubi container. He sat across from Naruto at the table, and his spouse attempted to smile up at him, but it seemed a little weak. "Mmm," Sasuke said quietly. "Black coffee. At this hour?" Of course Naruto could tell that what Sasuke was really trying to ask - _Why aren't you in bed?_

"Couldn't sleep," the Kyuubi boy murmured.

Sasuke nodded understandingly, and stood to fix himself a cup of his own. "Might as well drink it while it's still fresh," he muttered. "Why did you fix a whole pot?"

Naruto shrugged. "Just figured I'd be up for a while."

With his mug of steaming liquid, Sasuke sat back down, pulling his seat up closer to Naruto. For a long while they sat in contented silence, sipping their coffee. Finally, Sasuke asked, "You're worrying about it again aren't you?" His voice had that steely edge to it, saying that there was no need for Naruto to be worrying at all.

Naruto sighed heavily. "Of course I am," he said. "It's been over _thirteen_ _years_, Sasuke. We've been trying so hard for the past couple of years... Why aren't I pregnant yet?" Sasuke could already see the tears of frustration building up in Naruto's eyes, though the Kyuubi boy was obviously fighting hard to keep them down - he'd already been thinking about this for a while, then.

It was Sasuke's turn to sigh. He shook his head. "I just don't know, Naruto." He paused a moment to take another long drink. "What does Kyuubi say about it?"

"Says there's nothin' he can do." He ran his fingers through his hair and chuckled bitterly. "It's funny; you manage to get me knocked up the first time without even trying, and now that you are trying you can't even do it at all."

"Well... what if you already are pregnant and we just don't know it yet?"

Naruto shook his head. "We would know it. I can't be pregnant and in my male form at the same time."

All was quiet again for a while. Sasuke glanced around the room, seeing the ghosts of all his memories running about the kitchen like a movie in his head. His mother, smiling down at him. His father, his brother, sitting near him at the table. Naruto, in woman form, kneeling at his feet, trying to make him believe that it was _him_ under all that makeup and hair gel. Hurtful times; painful memories.

And then there were happier ones; Hemiko with her little hands grasping two of Sasuke's fingers, just learning how to walk. The time Cheri slipped and hit her head on the table a little too hard - Naruto had had a panic attack, but the girl hadn't even cried. Hell, at the time she'd been more upset at seeing Naruto upset than she had been by the bump on her head.

Sasuke smiled fondly at the tender memories of his children growing up, and he slowly reached out to take Naruto's hand. The Kyuubi boy looked up at him with hope and happiness dancing in his tired blue eyes. "Maybe it's my turn to give it a try," Sasuke suggested quietly.

"What?" Naruto asked. "What do you mean?"

"Maybe it's _my_ turn to try to carry the babies. You know... _I_ could be the mother this time."

Naruto laughed then - _really _laughed. He hadn't done that a whole lot since he had started trying to fill the position of Hokage. "Pregnant Sasuke Uchiha, grumpy as a son of a bitch and waddling around the mansion, probably craving ice cream and god knows what else. An enormous belly jutting out of his middle. Having to wear maternity clothes." He laughed a bit more at that. "Yeah, I can see it."

Sasuke grumbled under his breath and shifted uneasily. "If that's what it takes," he muttered.

Naruto smiled at him pleasantly - it seemed a little less forced than before. "You really want to have another kid as much as I do, don't you?"

Sasuke nodded. "I wouldn't mind," he said. "And... I'd do anything to see you happy." He and Naruto smiled at each other for a moment.

"Thank you, Sasuke."

He bowed his head slightly in acknowledgment. "You're welcome."

Their coffee was getting cold, and neither of them wanted any more, so they simply sat quietly; thinking, looking at one another, remembering... "I think something's bothering Cheri," Sasuke mentioned after a moment.

"What do you mean?" Naruto asked.

"Well," he sighed. "I didn't want to bother you about it. You've got enough on your plate already, and I think it's just a teenager thing anyway. But I don't know, she just seems... troubled. She's moving out of her room you know," he said, giving Naruto a look.

"_What? _Why would she do that?"

Sasuke shrugged, throwing up his free hand in a sort of helpless gesture. "Beats me. She seemed pretty pissed off when I asked her about it though, so I didn't bother her much. I think she's moving into the older part of the mansion..." He trailed off, memories of that old place filling his head and spreading across his mind like a disease. After all the years since, Sasuke still had trouble talking about the deaths of all his family members. He cleared his throat, determined to stay focused on the current topic of conversation. "I think you should talk to her," he continued.

Naruto nodded and rubbed Sasuke's hand gently with his thumb. "Okay," he replied quietly. "I will."

* * *

_**A/N:**__ So what do you all think of chapter one? Is it any good? You think I should change anything? Also, I need some idea for this story. As of now, I have no idea where I'm going with this. So if you want me to keep writing it, message me or review and send me some ideas. I'm sure your little brains are buzzing with more creative thoughts than mine is at this point. ;)_


	2. Mission Mansion Clean Up

_**Disclaimer: **__I do not own Naruto._

_**A/N:**__ The reviewers are saying that the Sasuke-getting-pregnant thing sounds like it might be a good idea, but some of the reviewers are also saying that they don't like the way Cheri and Hemiko's relationship is. Actually, not all twins are buddy-buddy. Two of my own friends are twins and they are exact opposites. Anyway, what I'm getting at is, even being Naruto's and Sasuke's babies wouldn't change the way the girls are. Actually it's more likely for them to be this way seeing as they _are_ Sasuke and Naruto's babies. You gotta remember - Naruto and Sasuke loved each other through hating one another._

_And besides, I'm planning on making things better, so don't worry._

_So enough of my stupid ranting now, read the freaking chapter. (lol)

* * *

_

It took Cheri another two days before she was able to find that room in the mansion again. The first day she had simply forgotten about it, and upon remembering it discovered that it was already too late to search for it anyway. Since it was still wintertime, the sun set early, and it would be pointless if she found the room in the dark. The next day, she made sure to remember, and rushed to find the room as soon as she was home from school. _Hemiko can handle all the chores today,_ she thought smugly. For now Cheri was going to be losing herself within the depths of the mansion.

It took Cheri an hour or so to find the door once she started looking. She had just started to worry that she wouldn't have time to find it before the sun went down when suddenly she came across the first hallway with all of its doors open, indicating that she was finally on the right path. She followed the next few halls, trying to memorize the way she was going. Left turn, then right, then right again. Finally, a hallway with one of it's doors closed. It was the door that had been locked the other night. Now, what was in it?

Excitement filled her, the blood rushed in her veins. What kind of secrets had she unlocked? Would she finally have some clue as to who had lived in this mansion before her family? Smiling to herself, Cheri stepped up and promptly opened the door.

There actually was one small window in the room, one that she hadn't noticed the other night. Little light showed through, but it was enough. She frowned. She had expected something... _more_. But the room was completely empty, all but for the dust. Her feet left tracks through the thick layer of it on the floor, causing her eyes to water. Dust swirled all around her as she made her way across the little room over to the window. She coughed and sneezed and rubbed at her watery eyes. It took a surprising amount of effort for Cheri to be able to get the window open, but eventually she managed it.

Turning back, frowning on the empty room, it was then that she made the decision. She would clean up this part o the mansion, make it habitable again. At least it would give her something to do, and then maybe... maybe they could put these old rooms to use again somehow. After all, they couldn't just allow an entire part of the mansion to rot while they used only one little piece of it. What had been going through her fathers' minds all these years, leaving these rooms abandoned like that?

Suddenly, Sasuke appeared at the doorway, his eyes wide, and looking surprised to see her there. "Cheri?"

She smiled lightly at him. "What's up dad?" she asked casually.

He glanced warily around the inside of the room, his eyes lingering on the dusty floor. He hesitated before speaking. "What are you doing in here?"

Cheri was confused. What was that guarded tone in his voice? She'd never heard it coming from him before. Was it fear? She shrugged it off. Perhaps it was mere curiosity, and she was just letting her mind get carried away with her. "I'm gonna clean this place up, dad, so we can use the rooms again. I mean, jeez, how long's it been since actual people _lived_ in this part of the mansion? I can't believe you let it get this bad."

Sasuke didn't reply for a while. He just kept looking around the inside of the room. Finally, he took his eyes from it, and they strayed somewhat sadly to the hallway. "Come on, your sister was worried about you. She called for you, but she couldn't find you anywhere."

_Like hell she was worried about me,_ Cheri thought sarcastically as she crossed the room. Sasuke took one of his hands from his pocket and covered his nose because of the stirring dust, his eyes straying back to the dirty floor once again. But he smiled when she stepped up to him. "Look at you, you're filthy." He rubbed a thumb across one cheek, and she pulled out of his reach. "There are smudges of dirt on your cheeks. Come on, let's go clean up, and then we'll start supper."  
She nodded. "Alright." Cheri closed the door behind her before they started off down the hallway.

* * *

After school the next day, Cheri hurried home. Hemiko called after her to wait up, but Cheri ignored her. Upon arriving home, she went off toward her new room, reminding herself that she would eventually have to move the rest of her things to there from her old room. Cheri decided that opening the windows and tackling the dust in the rooms was probably the wisest thing to do first. She figured that sweeping first was the simplest thing to do, and afterwards she could work on anything else that needed working on, taking this job bit by bit. It would probably take several days just to get a few of the hallways done though, so she realized that this was not something she would enjoy doing. She wasn't even sure why she was doing it. But she'd do it anyway. 

The first hallway she began to clean was the one where her own bedroom resided. She opened all the windows in each room and began to sweep up the dust and the dirt. She coughed and sneezed quite a bit, but continued to work. She began with the hallway itself. Once she was satisfied with that, she began taking on the rooms one by one. She decided that she would have to mop the next day.

Night fell sooner than she expected. Had she really been working for so long already? She cleaned herself up - if her father had thought she was a mess the day before, he should see her now - and then made her way to the kitchen only to find that her family had already eaten, and her food was cold. Scrunching her nose at the food left on the table for her, she grabbed an apple instead and went to find her father.

She found her family out back with a few friends - Ayame and Amaya's parents, Hinata and Neji Hyuga. Cheri had never really gotten the chance to know her friends' parents, but they seemed nice enough. Neji, though, she didn't talk to so much, because he always seemed so serious. It was discomforting when he stared directly at her, face expressionless, whenever she said anything to him. Hinata though had always been very kind to Cheri. She was a beautiful woman; she had long flowing hair, and purple eyes without any pupils, just like Amaya and Ayame's eyes were. Actually, Neji and Hinata both had long flowing hair and strange purple eyes. Sometimes you could almost mistake one for the other; it was really quite funny.

Cheri approached the little group with caution, but upon seeing her, Naruto's face lit up with a large grin. "There's my girl," he exclaimed laughing, pulling her in for a rough hug. "Whew! Your hair smells all musty. What've you been doing Cheri?"

Ignoring the question, she turned to her other father and asked, "Do you know where I could find some lamps and light bulbs?" She asked Sasuke because every time there was something they needed to find in a part of the house, he always seemed to know where it was - every time she asked her father, Naruto, about where something was he only ever said that he'd have to ask Sasuke. Also, the reason why she needed the lamps and the light bulbs anyway was because only a few of the rooms in the old part of the mansion had electricity, but the bulbs in them were all blown, and she'd need oil lamps to see her way around inside the rooms that didn't have electricity installed yet. She'd also found that some of the rooms in the old part of the mansion actually had things in them - old boxes, furniture covered with dusty brown and grey sheets... things like that.

Sasuke thought for a moment. "Lamps and light bulbs?" he repeated.

"Yeah. Like, a lot of them."

"Well... I think I might know where a bunch of old lamps might be, but you'll have to wait on the light bulbs."

She smiled at him. "Okay," she said, picturing in her head the way the rest of the mansion would be by the time she was done with it - and what kind of secrets she might unveil. "Can you show me where the lamps are, then?"

"Sure. Go on inside and I'll be there in just a second."

"Okay dad." She gave him a quick hug.

"Nice seeing you again Cheri," Hinata commented as Cheri headed for the house.

"You too!" she replied.

"Oh, the girls are in the house by the way. I think they've been looking for you."

"Oh, okay. I'll go find them."

But there was no need for Cheri to go searching - she ran into the twin girls as she reentered the house. Cheri grinned upon seeing them. "Oh hey you guys. What's up?"

Ayame and Amaya shared a look. It was creepy how they did that. Sometimes it was almost like they could read each other's minds. "What have you been up to Cheri?" Amaya asked.

"We've been looking for you for a while," Ayame picked up, "but you weren't in your room."

"Hemiko said she didn't know where you were. And she was all pissed off 'cause something about you didn't help her with the chores. She called you some very nasty names."

Cheri crossed her arms and leaned nonchalantly against the doorframe. "Yeah," she scoffed. "Wouldn't be surprised if she did that everyday anyway."

Ayame and Amaya nodded simultaneously, the exact same mix of sympathy and understanding on each of their faces, even though neither of them really understood what it was like to be at odds with their siblings. It was discomforting how they did little things like that - like moving at the same time, speaking the same thoughts at the same time, getting the same exact grades and how they liked all the same things. They were inseparable, and they'd never once fought as far as Cheri knew. Sometimes she wondered if they really _could_ read each other's minds, but somehow she'd just never gotten around to asking; Cheri had become somewhat used to their behavior by now.

It was sad though, to see how other twin girls their own age acted. Ayame and Amaya were so close, and the only thing Cheri and Hemiko seemed to be _"so close"_ to was hating each other. For a moment - just a moment - Cheri envied her two friends, but then she shook the feeling off and thought of how much a bitch Hemiko really was, and how the hell could she ever get along with _that_?

"Well I've been working on a kind of project," Cheri said, coming back to the conversation at hand.

"A project?" Amaya asked.

Cheri nodded. "Yeah. Wanna help?"

And that was what _really_ started "Mission Mansion Clean-Up." From that day onward Amaya and Ayame were there at the mansion helping her everyday after school. Neji and Hinata saw no problem with it, and most of the time it even gave them an excuse to visit their old friends, Cheri's fathers. And eventually some of Cheri's other friends began to join in. Yasashiku wasn't very big on it, as one would imagine, but somehow Amaya had convinced him to come and help. It was strange really, almost as if he returned the feelings she had for him. And he probably did, but Cheri didn't ask. It was none of her business. Anyway, most of her friends' parents felt the same as Neji and Hinata did - at least they could come and visit Naruto and Sasuke more often now.

It was nice to have everybody there, really. Sometimes Cheri's fathers would throw big dinner parties for all of their friends and Cheri's friends, and sometimes a few of Hemiko's friends were invited as well but they never really joined in the festivities. Most of the time, actually, Hemiko would leave, seeing as how she didn't really like any of Cheri's friends. Cheri figured her sister was probably going over to _her_ friend's houses, or maybe even out training, but then again Hemiko had never been the hard-working type. In any case, Cheri found herself feeling... much more alive lately. Better. Whole. She could take a deep breath and feel the air filling up her lungs like a thirsty man taking his first gulp of ice cold water (except for whenever she was surrounded by dust of course). She was much happier now, and she was seldom lonely, because even when _all_ her friends couldn't be there, at least some of them were.

The sadness that had filled her so completely whenever she was at home before was now finally wearing off.

She was glad for it.

* * *

And then there was the day she learned Big Secret #1 (only number one because there were more to come), and somehow she felt betrayed all over again. 

It was a Saturday, and it was the very first time when not a single one of her friends could come over and help out at the mansion. And besides, they were all beat. Working so much lately was really wearing them out, though Cheri herself was still as determined as ever. Since her father had found all the lamps and the oils and the light bulbs she was now able to work whenever she pleased, day or night. And she managed to get _a lot _of work done, even on her own. Actually she was sort of glad that her friends were not going to be there that day, because ironically enough they had finally managed to reach the hallways with the locked door she had had so much trouble with before, and she would be working on that room. Somehow, it just felt like she had been meant to find that room. There was a reason she had found it, and there was a reason it had been locked, and she would find out what those reasons were. Perhaps today she would find something - some kind of old memory - hidden beneath all that dust. Or maybe there was something hidden beneath the floorboards or inside the walls. Cheri had thought quite a bit about that room for some reason. She couldn't figure out why it seemed so significant to her.

So when she got home, she ran to the old part of the mansion. By now Hemiko had gotten used to Cheri not helping her out with the chores, and their fathers never said a word against it. Cheri _was_ cleaning house after all - just a different part of the house. "Why is she even _bothering_ cleaning a part of the house that nobody uses anyway?" Hemiko had complained one day at dinner, absolutely fuming. "I mean, what's the point?" Nobody had answered, but Cheri had continued doing her work anyway.

Cheri ran down perfectly clean hallways - everything dusted and polished and straightened up. Every floor mopped so that now instead of kicking up dirt her feet tapped lightly on the faintly shining wood. You could definitely tell where the work had stopped, to say the least, and she slowed down so that she would not have the familiar presence of dust in her nose and eyes. Cheri slowly approached the one room with it's door closed. This was the next hallway she and her friends needed to work on, and she had made sure that every door besides that particular one was open, so that she'd know when they came across it. She smiled when she entered the room, coughed once because of the dirt, and began to get to work.

Thirty minutes into it, she went to the kitchen to get the mop and the soaps ready. She had swept up all the dust for the most part - tedious but satisfying work. Cheri had not found anything of interest in the room yet - other than a small stain on the floor, and that was pretty normal - but that was to be expected she supposed.

In the process of filling a bucket with water and soap, Sasuke's voice interrupted her thoughts. "Working again?" he asked quietly, and there was that strange sound in his voice again; that guarded tone, a mix of sadness and fear. It confused her, really. She turned to look at his face, but it was strangely expressionless.

"Yeah," she replied, turning back to what she was doing.

"If I may ask, why _are_ you doing all this, Cheri?"

She grunted as she lifted the now full bucket and sat it at her feet. "I don't know," she said with a tired sigh, and she leaned back against the sink, propping her elbows up behind her. "I just feel like it's something I have to do - something I'm supposed to do. There is so much more than dust back there, dad. _People_ used to _live_ back there. This mansion was once another family's home. I think about the people who made this place and the people who used to live here and all the memories they made and I wonder how they would feel if they saw it being put to waste. It's a beautiful mansion dad - once you get it fixed up a little bit." She didn't quite know what else to say, so she trailed off.

Sasuke didn't move or reply, and she studied his expression carefully. There was no frown or smile, his eyes did not dance like they usually did but they looked down at the floor. Cheri had the strange urge to hug him, though that was a little weird. Hemiko was the one Sasuke doted on all the time - he hardly seemed like he cared much about Cheri. Sometimes she wondered if he loved her at all, and sometimes she voiced her worriea aloud to Naruto, who would only chuckle and calle her silly, saying that she had nothing to worry about. But where was the proof? Where was the love that Naruto always spoke about - the love that Sasuke supposedly had for Naruto and their two children? Cheri rarely ever saw it, and even when she did she was rarely ever the one receiving any of it.

"Did you ever know the people who used to live here dad?" she asked suddenly. "The people who _did_ use that old part of the mansion?"

If anything, Sasuke's expression only became more reserved. "Yeah," he said quietly and with a small, reluctant nod. "Yeah, I knew them."

"Really? What were they like?" she asked.

He waited a long time to reply, but at the moment he opened his mouth to speak, Naruto entered the room with a big grin on his face. "There she is!" he said laughing and he walked up to Cheri and tickled her sides like she was a little girl again. She laughed and stepped out of the way, careful not to tip over the bucket at her feet. "Isn't she getting so tall Sasuke?" Naruto boasted, but Sasuke was already gone.

"Where'd he go?"

Cheri shrugged. "I dunno. He's been acting funny lately. But I gotta get back to work now okay?"

He smiled and nodded. "Okay," and with a kiss on the forehead he left the room too, following after Sasuke and calling his name.


	3. Big Secret Number One

_**Disclaimer: **__I do not own Naruto_

_**A/N: **__To be perfectly honest, I didn't really enjoy writing this chapter. I don't know, it was just... such a drag to write for some reason. Ever have those moments? I think it was just me being a procrastinator though, so don't worry. _

_Anyway, sorry it took so long. I warn you, this is a lengthy one. Enjoy :)_

* * *

As Cheri walked the hallways with her full bucket of soap water and the mop in one hand, she wondered about a lot of things, such as why her father was acting the way he was. It was so strange; she'd never seen him act that way before. And however much she tried to just shrug it off, she couldn't get rid of the bad feeling in her stomach. There was something there - a secret, she thought.

She entered the room she'd been planning for so long to work on, and smiled to herself. This room was probably the whole reason why she'd decided to clean the mansion up in the first place. As she slopped some of the suds onto the floor, dipped the mop into the water, and began to work, she thought back on all the good times she and her friends had been having lately. Cleaning this place up was a lot of hard work, but it was enjoyable when she had people to help her. They laughed, had fights with dirty soap water and dust rags, startled one another by jumping out from behind corners unexpectedly... For the first time in what seemed an eternity, Cheri had what she felt was a life worth living.

Still deep in thought, something suddenly caught Cheri's attention - a dark spot. She scrubbed at it, but it refused to come up. As she continued to wash, the mop revealed a bit more of the spot, then a bit more. It took quite a while to get the spot completely uncovered - it was quite _large_, and no matter how she scrubbed at it, it just wouldn't come up. It was a dark stain on the floor, soaked into the wood. What was it, she wondered? It looked like it had been some kind of liquid, whatever it was.

Oh well. She reminded herself to ask her father later about something to remove stains with, but probably she would just have to paint over it.

Cheri continued to clean, but for some reason her eyes wouldn't leave that spot on the floor. It took up quite a bit of the room, and it was very noticeable now that the floor was clean. And whenever she thought of Sasuke, her father, the bad feeling she'd had only grew. For some reason, she was sure that stain was blood.

Around noon and feeling uneasy, she finally left the room, sure that she wouldn't be able to down anything for lunch. The raw bad feeling in her gut had only grown over the hours, and she needed to talk about it with somebody. Unfortunately, the only _somebody_ she seemed to be able to find was Hemiko.

Cheri's twin was sitting on the couch in the living room, silently reading. This was a common pastime of Naruto's as well, and as far as Cheri knew, that was one of the very few things that Hemiko and Naruto actually had in common.

"Hemiko?" Cheri asked.

It was a long moment before her sister replied. "...Yeah?" Hemiko finally asked, looking up for a brief moment.

"Have you noticed dad's been acting strange lately?"  
Another long moment as Hemiko's eyes scanned the page. "What?" She looked up again and this time didn't immediately put her head back down. She was trying to focus, but her eyes were still lost in whatever dreamland she was living in.

"Dad - Sasuke - have you noticed he's been acting weird lately?"

Hemiko shook her head. "I don't know. I'm trying to read, Cheri." She buried her nose back into her book.

Cheri gave a frustrated sigh and left the room. With lack of anything better to do, she went back to her cleaning site - the room with the stain. Would that be how she thought of it from now on?

But when she returned, instead of finding the room empty, she found Sasuke standing there in the doorway. His back was to her, and she couldn't see his expression, but he didn't seem to have heard her approach.

"Dad?" she asked.

He turned around slowly to meet her gaze. His eyes were wide and frightened. The bad feeling in her gut reached its peak. There were tears in Sasuke's eyes. "My parents were killed in this room."

* * *

Sasuke was emotionally distraught. Cheri had run off to find Naruto after Sasuke had made his startling statement, and Naruto had brought Sasuke back into the living room. Now Sasuke sat on the couch, in the spot that Hemiko had been sitting in earlier while reading, his head down and tears slowly trickling down his cheeks. "Dad?!" Hemiko was close to screaming at him now, and there were tears standing out in her own eyes as well. She'd been calling to him for a while, asking what was going on, but Sasuke hadn't even looked at her. "What's _wrong_ with him?" she demanded of Naruto and Cheri, tears choking her voice.

"It's okay Hemiko," Naruto sighed. "Sasuke's okay he's just... trapped in the past right now. He probably can't even hear you. He gets like this sometimes."

"But..." Hemiko trailed off, gazing at her father.

"What's going on dad?" Cheri demanded. She had to admit, she was close to tears herself. Her heart was pounding loudly - she wondered, what had Sasuke meant by what he'd said? "I just don't understand! I mean, he'd said that..." She trailed off as well, unable to speak the words. Cheri looked at her father - Sasuke - and saw emotions causing havoc inside his mind - his eyes looked dead.

Naruto sat by Sasuke on the couch and pulled him close. Sasuke did nothing. He lay against Naruto like dead weight, unblinking. "Kids," Naruto said gravely to them. "Go to your rooms and stay there for a while. I'm going to get Sasuke calmed down for now. I'll explain later."

"Dad!" Hemiko screeched. "H-how can you say that? You want me to be trapped alone in my room for _hours_, wondering what's going on? How can you do that to me?"

Cheri glared at her selfish sister._ The one who needs attention right now is our dad - not you,_ Cheri thought bitterly.

Naruto looked annoyed as well. "Then take a nap," he snapped. "Do anything you want - just go."

Hemiko knew when to obey him - that had been Naruto's Hokage-in-training voice. Stiffly, the girl bowed, and fled the room. Cheri however, stood there for a moment, looking sadly at her two fathers. "Cheri, please go." Naruto sounded exhausted.

She stood there for a moment longer, just watching the two of them. Naruto apparently opted to ignore her. Slowly, Cheri's feet moved her forward before she even knew what she was doing. She knelt down next to the couch so that she was eyelevel with Sasuke's face. He still didn't blink. She was inches from him and it seemed he couldn't even see her at all. She could feel Naruto's gaze on her.

Cheri placed one hand on Sasuke's shoulder. "Daddy, I love you," she said sincerely. And until that moment she had not realized how true it was - as much as they did not understand one another, Sasuke was still her father, and Cheri still loved him.

Something flickered in Sasuke's eyes - a different emotion. He blinked once, and his eyes focused for a moment. Fresh tears spilled down his face, falling into Naruto's lap. "I love you too sweetie," he said quietly. And then he looked down, and was lost in his mind again.

Cheri and Naruto looked at one another for a moment, and then she stood, and quietly left the room.

* * *

Good news came for them that night. Cheri had fallen asleep after the incident with her father, and she hadn't come out of her room since. She was woken hours later by her father, Naruto, grinning down at her. "Great news Cheri," he whispered. "Starting tomorrow, I'm the new official Hokage."

At first Cheri was confused, forgetting what day it was and all that, but when she heard her father say that, she gasped and immediately sat up in her bed. "Really?" she asked. He nodded excitedly. "Oh, daddy!" she cried, and she threw her arms around him happily.

He chuckled into her hair. "Want to go with me to tell Hemiko?"

"You haven't told her yet?"

He grinned and shook his head. "Nope. I wanted you to be one of the very first people to know."

She grinned back at him just as widely. Then, suddenly, she remembered everything that had happened before. "How's dad?" she asked quietly.

Naruto's face grew somber. "Sasuke is... doing better. He's sleeping. He calmed down a lot. I haven't given him the good news yet."

"Well why don't we go tell him then?" Suddenly a little light bulb popped up above her head. "And why don't we have a party too? To celebrate? That would cheer dad up."

Naruto chuckled. "You don't know your father very well, do you?" She was confused. At her look he explained, "Sasuke usually hates parties, and he surely wouldn't want one at a time like this - when he feels emotionally weak. But then again, Sasuke's changed over the years, so maybe we can give it a try."

Cheri agreed to go fill Hemiko in while Naruto woke her (other) father. Cheri walked into her sister's room without knocking - a habit that she and Hemiko had picked up when they were little; they were twins, and as much as they disliked each other at times, still, they had no secrets. Cheri wasn't surprised to see her sister sitting under her reading lamp with a book in her lap, but what she _was_ surprised to see was Hemiko staring out of her bedroom window with tears streaming down her face. Apparently the events of earlier that day were still fresh in her mind.

Cheri, who was in a slightly understanding mood, slowly walked over to her sister. Hemiko began to wipe the tears away. "You've been crying this whole time?" she asked quietly, and she made her voice sound just a tad bit incredulous. Hemiko didn't reply. More seriously Cheri added, "Dad's just found out some good news. Naruto. He's going to become Hokage tomorrow."

Hemiko looked up at Cheri, a mixture of emotions on her face.

"Look if you're still worried about Sasuke, you shouldn't be. Dad says he's doing better. He calmed down and laid down for a nap. Tonight we're going to have a party to celebrate Naruto becoming Hokage, and hopefully seeing all his friends will cheer dad up again."

Cheri watched as her sister turned the idea over in her mind. "A party?" she asked. Cheri nodded. "Can I invite my friends?"

"I don't know. You'll have to ask dad."

Hemiko nodded. "Alright."

* * *

The party went very well. All of Cheri's friends were there, as well as Hemiko's, and not to mention Sasuke and Naruto's friends of course. Even the current Hokage (soon to be former Hokage) was there - Tsunade herself. Every time Cheri came into contact with the woman she found herself surprised that one who had been Hokage for so long could still look so young, and so she had to keep reminding herself that Tsunade had a special transformation technique that allowed her to appear any age she wanted to be.

Cheri also wondered what it must be like for Tsunade to attend a party in celebration of someone else taking over her job. Tsunade, however, seemed almost... glad for it - she seemed almost abnormally grateful, in fact. With a full sake cup in one hand, Tsunade threw her other arm around Naruto and left it draped about his shoulders. "I gotta tell ya - I'm relieved," she exclaimed loudly, pressing her face close to Naruto's in a way that made Cheri wonder if the woman were not already drunk. "Being Hokage is waaaaay too much pressure and responsibility. Whew! I'll be glad to be rid of the title." She grinned largely before throwing her head back and downing the contents of the sake cup.

She laughed loudly then and shook Naruto playfully. "I admit when we first met I didn't think you were Hokage material, but boy you've sure proved me wrong." A round of laughter went around in agreement. Tsunade refilled her cup herself, threw her arm back around Naruto, and immediately proposed a toast. Everyone drank - everyone except for the children, of course - even Sasuke, who was standing quietly not too far off in an out of the way place.

To Cheri, the party did not seem to be helping Sasuke one bit. He wasn't socializing at all, and nobody approached him - after years and years of being around the Uchiha, people knew well when to avoid him. However, when Cheri pulled Naruto aside to question him about it, he told her not to worry. He told Cheri that Sasuke was doing much better than he usually did after one of his bouts - apparently this had happened before.

It plagued Cheri to know what it had all been about - why Sasuke had freaked out like that - and it threatened to overcome her several times during the party. As a result, she was in a bad mood most of the time, which caused her to be a bit snappish whenever someone talked to her. It was not that she was trying to be mean, or even that she was angry - she was just a bit annoyed by the fact that here she was worrying her little head off, and there was no chance for anybody to tell her what the heck was going on.

So, people began giving Cheri the same looks they were giving Sasuke, and avoiding her just as much; even her friends stayed away from her. Jokingly, someone said, "She's definitely got Sasuke's attitude." A few people in the crowd laughed at that. Cheri scowled at them all and crossed her arms grumpily, but Sasuke looked up and gave her a weak smile, which made her feel a little better - relieved, at least, that he was well enough to know what was happening around him, and to smile at his daughter.

Then, something else happened, and it was quite different from the "something" that Cheri was expecting. Amaya approached Cheri, absolutely bubbling with enthusiasm. "Guess what Cheri?" she whispered excitedly. Cheri raised a skeptical eyebrow - she'd never seen her friend this keyed up before. Amaya was literally bouncing on her heels with joy - the girl couldn't seem to stand still - and the excitement that seemed to be coursing through her caused her voice to raise a couple octaves. "Never mind, you'll _never_ guess." A grin threatened to break out over the girl's face. It made Cheri curious, and for a moment it took her thoughts away from Sasuke and her family problems.

"What is it?" she asked warily.

The grin won over and Amaya laughed happily. "Oh Cheri, Yasashiku _talked _to me today."

It took Cheri a moment to get it - Yasashiku talked to her everyday, that was nothing unusual as far as she knew - but suddenly understanding hit her, and she smiled at her friend. "That's great Amaya! What did he say?"

The girl laughed again, and the next she said all came out in a rush that Cheri could barely understand. "Well, I was really nervous and stuff because I've kinda been wanting him to talk to him about it, so at first I decided against it. I was like 'I'm definitely not going to!' but then Ayame got annoyed and told me to just do it, and then I talked to Mika and she said so too!" She took a short breath. "Sooooo then I just walked up to him, and I was all nervous, and I almost chickened out but then I just told him I liked him and he gave me this really weird look at first like he didn't understand, but then he said that that was cool and then..." she paused to take a bigger breath "...he held my hand!" She squealed kind of quietly. "I'm so happy!"

Cheri grinned at her enthusiastic friend. "I'm so happy for you Amaya!"

"Thanks!" the girl laughed, obviously relieved. She hugged Cheri animatedly.

"Don't look now," Cheri whispered in her ear, spotting Yasashiku in the crowd, "but here comes loverboy - walking your way."

Amaya jumped a bit at that, and her eyes grew wide as she spun around on the spot. Yasashiku walked up to them casually, looking bored and kind of embarrassed. Amaya seemed unsure of what to do, and her eyes flickered to the walls and the floor and the ceiling and back to him. "So, uh..." he trailed off, running a hand through his hair.

"Yeah?" she asked with a tiny smile when he didn't continue.

He grumbled under his breath for a minute, and he wouldn't look at her. "You wanna go for a walk or somethin'?"

She flashed a bright grin. "Okay."

Cheri watched in amusement as Amaya and Yasashiku quietly snuck out together. Quickly she found the rest of her friends and filled them in. Most of them just laughed, but the guys all rolled their eyes. "You seem to be in a better mood now, Cheri," Kiyoshi noted as he pulled his little sister - Kichi - closer to him. He was supposed to be keeping an eye on her, but the girl was shy around the teenagers. She looked up at Cheri with large, curious eyes. Usually whenever Cheri tried to talk to the girl, Kichi would just hide behind Kiyoshi. The two of them were pretty close, as far as siblings went.

"Hm," Cheri replied, idly thinking back on the issues from before. Her eyes searched for Sasuke in the crowd, and she found him standing near Naruto around some of their friends. He seemed to be in a better mood as well, and Cheri relaxed a little.

Eventually, someone happened to noticed that Amaya and Yasashiku were missing. Shikimaru was the first to realize it. He'd approached Cheri and the others, casually asking where Yasashiku was while his eyes scanned the crowd. Cheri shared looks and smug smiles with her friends. "He went out," Ayame replied simply.

Shikamaru, hearing the amused edge of her voice, looked down at them then and obviously could see the glee in their expressions. "Out where?" he asked suspiciously.

"Out with Amaya," Cheri answered, and Mika giggled. Even Haru and Kiyoshi grinned at that.

Shikamaru seemed stunned. "He went out with a girl?" He blinked a few times in surprise at the notion, and then laughed as he breathed a sigh of relief. Shaking his head, the man turned away to tell the other party guests.

Upon finding out where their daughter was, Neji of course fretted, but Hinata just laughed and held him still. "Amaya knows how to take care of herself dear," she told him. "And I'm sure little Yasashiku would never do anything in the slightest to pressure her. He's quiet, and he gets in trouble a lot, but he's a good kid." Shikamaru looked pleased at that.

Neji grunted, but still winced at the thought of his daughter out with a boy. He looked very uncomfortable, and _very_ unhappy. His eyes kept flickering over toward the door as if he were ready to bolt out of the party and drag his daughter back to where he could keep her in his sight. Hinata, Cheri thought, was the only thing really keeping him back.

One by one the party guests eventually left, seeking the refuge of their own homes. Once the very last of them was gone - Shikamaru leading an embarrassed-looking Yasashiku - Cheri turned to her fathers for an explanation of what had happened earlier that day. She wasn't sure where to start or what to say, but her fathers must have known what it was she wanted. Even Hemiko, who was sweeping nearby, looked up in curiosity. The girl's expression was confused, and even a little hurt. Cheri didn't blame her.

After discerning his daughters' expressions, Sasuke quietly left the room. Surprised, Naruto watched Sasuke leave and then looked back at his daughters helplessly. Angry now more than anything, Cheri let out an explosive sigh. Naruto gave her an apologetic look, and then followed after his husband. Hemiko's face grew even more somber and her gaze dropped to the floor and continued to sweep.

After a short moment of indecision, Cheri stalked out of the room after her fathers. Surprisingly Hemiko didn't try to stop her.

Cheri figured that they had gone to their own bedroom, so that's where she headed. She loved her parents' room. She had _always_. She loved the way it felt so comfortable and at home in there. As children she and Hemiko had spent plenty of time in that room, especially at night whenever they had nightmares; they would sleep in their parent's bed. But most of all, probably, Cheri loved the colorful splashes of paint that covered the walls - the result of an apparent paint fight that Naruto had once mentioned.

When Cheri approached the bedroom, the door was closed, but she could hear someone talking inside. She recognized her father - Naruto's voice. "...tell them _sometime_," he was saying. Sasuke replied with something too low for Cheri to hear, so she pressed her ear to the door.

"Sasuke, please, your daughters are worried about you. They have every right to know the truth and besides, by now they _must_ know that we've been keeping a secret from them." Sasuke didn't reply, that Cheri could hear. "We can hardly put this off any longer Sasuke, it's time to tell our kids the truth about what happened here. About what happened to you."

Curiosity rolled over Cheri in waves and threatened to overcome her. She had the strongest urge to just open the door, step inside the room, and demand to know what the hell they were talking about. She contained herself, though, and waited to hear something else.

Suddenly, the door opened. Cheri stumbled back in response and looked up with wide eyes at her fathers. After the moment of surprise passed, Naruto sighed. "Cheri..." he started.

Anger flared up within her, and she interrupted. "Something you need to tell us?" she demanded. "What are you hiding?"

Naruto hesitated, then sighed again. Sasuke kept his eyes on the floor. "Come on," Naruto said, placing a hand on her arm so as to lead her away. She moved unwillingly.

Back in the main room of the house, Hemiko was standing in the same spot, still sweeping the floor, but she looked like she wasn't paying much attention to what she was doing - her eyes were glazed over and she was crying a little. As Cheri and their fathers stepped closer, Hemiko looked up at them, and a few more tears trickled down her face. She didn't look particularly sad - just concerned.

Once again, Naruto sighed. "Come on everybody," he said. "We'll go in the kitchen, drink some nice warm tea to calm everyone's nerves, and then we'll get all of this out in the open."

Cheri and Hemiko silently followed their fathers into the kitchen and sat together at the table. Sasuke sat at one end, closest to Hemiko and across from Cheri, and across from Hemiko was Naruto's seat. The clock on the wall indicated that it was nearing midnight. There was a long day ahead of them the next day, Cheri knew, but it looked like they would all just have to be tired. There was no way she was going to spend the rest of the night trying to sleep, worrying about all this.

Naruto served the tea soon enough, while Cheri and Hemiko waited in impatient silence. Finally their father sat and Sasuke let out a long, heavy breath.

"So," Naruto started. "As you've probably guessed by now, there's something, about this house, that we haven't told you about." He looked down at the table near the end of his sentence. He grimaced. "You have to understand, it's not that we didn't want to tell you, or that we've been keeping secrets from you, we just... there wasn't ever a way to bring it up. We didn't know how to say it."

Sasuke had his face in his hands, eyes closed. Naruto did not continue. "What is it?" Hemiko prompted quietly.

Gravely, Naruto turned to his husband and took one of Sasuke's hands in his, taking it away from Sasuke's face. "I think you should be the one to tell them." He said so quietly. "I don't really know what happened - I wasn't there. Besides, it's your house. Your family. It just wouldn't be right coming from me."

He and Sasuke looked one another in the eye for a long time, and then Sasuke turned to his daughters and launched into the story of his tragic childhood.


	4. Memories, Secrets, and Pain

_**Disclaimer: **__I do not own Naruto_

_**A/N:**__ I know this is a shorty chapter, but it's got a lot of important information in it, I think. Plus I've pretty much got the plot for this story figured out now, and that's always good. And I'm updating faster. w00t!_

* * *

The silence rang deafeningly in Cheri's ears as she and Hemiko sat in shock at the story Sasuke had just told. Her first thought was, how could they have lived all their lives in this house without knowing? Without even the vaguest idea?

Sasuke now sat with his hands folded tightly across his chest, as if he were trying to hold himself together, and he was bent slightly over the table. His eyes were haunted and defeated-looking as they stared down at the tabletop without really seeing it. Naruto's expression nearly matched it, but to a lesser extent.

Cheri was the first to speak. Still stunned, she said, "But you... but you never told us the full story before. You just told us that your brother was crazy and that he tried to kill _us_. You never said..."

"And how could we say it, Cheri?" Naruto asked quietly. "You saw the state that Sasuke was in earlier - how could we just _tell_ you something like that?"

Hemiko was crying; her whole face was red. But she was looking at Sasuke. "Daddy," she cried. "I can't believe... something so horrible. You must've gone through so much." Sasuke answered her with silence, and so she went on crying.

Cheri was simply confused. "I just don't understand how you could keep something like this from us." A hint of accusation sounded in her voice. "This is where we live; our home - and those people were our family! We may not have known them, and they may never know us, but you owe it to their memory to at least let us know that they _existed_ in the first place!"

"Cheri..." Naruto started, but her words ran over his.

"No," she said, standing up from her seat. She leaned across the table to look her father, Naruto, in the eye. "I didn't know we'd ever even _had_ any family besides us four. Did it ever occur to you that Sasuke's parents - _our grandparents _- might want their grandchildren to know about them - to know that they lived?!"

Naruto gave her a dark look as Sasuke sank further against the table, clutching his sides even harder than before, and hiding his face. "That's a low blow, Cheri," Naruto said.

Cheri had chills going down her spine; goose bumps playing havoc across her arms; and that was when she let it all really sink in. Her grandparents had been murdered in the very room she'd been obsessing over for months. Her own uncle had murdered them inside this very house. Who had once owned the room she was staying in now? Had they been killed in there? In her bed? ...what had they been like? How old had they been? What kind of lives had they lived?

Eyes suddenly wide, Cheri sat back down slowly. Her breathing became a little heavier, her heart beat a little quicker. Was she having a panic attack? Giving up on any attempts at conversation, she rested her head on the table, allowing the thoughts in her mid to swirl.

All was silent again for a while, except for Hemiko's crying. After a few minutes, Naruto reached out to gently take Cheri's hand in his, but without a word, she moved her arm back out of his grasp.

"How many secrets have you been keeping from us?" Cheri asked in a near whisper, not even bothering to look up as she spoke.

"What?" Naruto asked, his voice just as quiet. Hemiko, who _had_ heard Cheri's words, started crying a little harder, and slumped over on the table.

Cheri lifted her head and repeated the question. Naruto stared at her for a long moment with wide eyes, his mouth hanging open slightly. Sasuke had not yet raised his face.

"How. many. other. secrets?" Cheri hissed demandingly, pronouncing each word separately.

Naruto's mouth closed, and his eyes scanned the table top as if there would be an answer there for him. Hemiko had stopped crying for a moment, though she did not sit up - she wanted to hear his response too.

"What is it dad?" Cheri demanded, anger boiling like poison in her stomach.

Her father gazed at her helplessly. "It's not... a bad secret," he finally uttered. This of course only fanned the fire within her, making it flare up inside her chest until she was nearly ready to scream. She gritted her teeth. Registering his daughter's expression, Naruto's eyes widened even more, and he hurried to reassure her. "Uh... no, it's- it's not like you think! Uh..." His gaze shifted nervously from Sasuke - who only stared back at him blankly - to Hemiko - who still had her head down - to the table, and back again. So he started over. "Well it's just... well, Sasuke and I have been... we've been _trying _to have another baby." Naruto's face suddenly turned a bright red.

Cheri hadn't quite been expecting _that_. "What?!" she demanded quietly, incredulous. Nobody said anything, so she went on. "But... don't one of you have to be a woman for that to work?" Despite herself, she felt her own face turning a bit red as well. She, Hemiko, and her parents had only ever discussed this once - long ago, when Cheri had become curious. It had been a hell of an embarrassing conversation - enough so that nobody in the household had ever brought it up again.

Naruto wouldn't meet her gaze. "We've been trying..." he replied.

"Oh? And when were you going to tell us about this little scheme of yours?" she spat. "The day when one of you wake up and just can't turn back into a _man_?!" Feeling somewhat betrayed, she jumped to her feet, and her chair clattered loudly to the floor behind her, startling Hemiko. Her sister was looking at her now, with wide, almost frightened eyes that were still filled to the brim with tears. Cheri would never admit to the pain that shot through her and spread through her chest then - because of her sister's look, and her fathers' secrets. She'd never admit how hurt she felt; how confused.

"It was supposed to be happy news," Naruto said quietly, and the sound of tears in his voice was distinct.

Cheri just looked at him - taking in his wary, exhausted expression, the deep sadness in his eyes - and for a single instant, she understood, and saw everything clearly.

Without saying a word, she left the room, unable to shake off the feeling of betrayal.

* * *

Hemiko sat alone in her room. It was 3 o'clock in the morning, but she was nowhere near sleep. Her eyes were wide open, and it felt like she wouldn't be able close them even if she _wanted_ to. The cool air coming in through her open window stung her eyes, and made them water even more than they already were. She just couldn't seem to stop crying. Her father's story had shocked her, to say the least...

Hemiko wondered, how horrible it must have been for Sasuke. To see his entire family murdered... by his own brother, and to be the only survivor! What must have Sasuke done afterward? How could he possibly have recovered from that? Hemiko didn't blame him for never telling her and Cheri the story before - Hemiko herself would find doing so absolutely unbearable if she were in his situation. To relive those moments of agony again and again... he must have done so over a million times by now anyway.

And she just couldn't get the thought out of her head - what would she do if she had lost her own family in a similar way? She shuddered at the thought.

Hemiko had realized something she'd never realized before, about her parents - _both_ of her parents. Sasuke had been through so _much_ in his life - enough for a thousand lifetimes put together. What child deserves a fate like that? And she'd pondered what kind of life Naruto had had. She'd never really thought about her parents before, beyond the surface at least. She'd never even considered the fact that they'd had _lives_ before she and Cheri had come along. As a matter of fact, Hemiko hardly ever thought about anyone other than herself, and it made her a little ashamed now.

But now she thought, what kind of world had _Naruto _been born to? Where were _his _parents - _his _family? Had he suffered a fate like Sasuke's? And what had given him this fierce determination to become Hokage? What were _his_ tragedies? Hemiko did not know, and she wasn't about to go prying, but now she could see it clearly; something she'd missed all these years - the bond between her parents; the love they had for one another. They must have been through many hardships together, and those hardships had made their relationship strong - gave them strength. Sasuke and Naruto were tied together as surely as the sky was blue - they were the missing pieces in one another's lives, the thing that got them out of bed each morning and made them go on living.

Hemiko remembered the story from her childhood, of how Sasuke's crazed brother Itachi had tried to kill she and Cheri, starting before they were even born. But, again, she'd never put much thought into it before now. She realized her parents must have done _so_ _much_ for the two of them, to keep them safe, to protect them - and Hemiko had never even given it a second thought.

Sasuke's story had given her quite a bit to think about. That night - or morning - as the sun rose, her mind racing from horror after horror, jumping from one question to the next, Hemiko cried herself to sleep, wrapped in her fathers' pain.


	5. Time Never Slows, Strange Things Happen

_**Disclaimer:**__ I do not own Naruto_

_**A/N:**__ haha... Someone asked "if the mansion is so big, how come there's only one bathroom?" (y'know, from chapter one?) haha you got me stumped on that one. Seriously I never even considered it. Maybe it's the only bathroom in the part of the mansion they were actually living in at the time._

* * *

_**A/N:**__ Also, I know that the names of all Cheri's friends and who their parents are can get a bit confusing, (I'm constantly forgetting who is who these days), so I'm putting up a list to make things easier for you._

**Ayame & Amaya Hyuga -** twin girls, daughters of Hinata and Neji Hyuga. Amaya is the one that has a crush on Yasashiku.

**Haru Hatake - **oldest of three, son of Kakashi and Iruka Hatake (yes, somewhere along the line Iruka and Kakashi _did_ get married), Haru's two younger brothers are not yet old enough to join the academy.

**Kiyoshi Akimichi -** son of Choji and Ino Akimichi, only sibling is a seven year old girl.

**Kichi Akimichi -** youngest child of Choji and Ino, older brother is Kiyoshi.

**Mika Lee - **daughter of Rock Lee and Sakura, I haven't decided if she has any siblings yet, she's surprisingly pretty, she has Rock Lee's glossy black hair and Sakura's normal eyebrows, she's also clumsy.

**Yasashiku Nara -** only child of Shikamaru Nara, mother unknown (thought to be Temari), always bored, gets detention a lot.

* * *

So, time passed as it always does. Naruto officially became Hokage as Tsunade went into "retirement" - the last anybody'd heard of her she was off gambling somewhere in the Land of the Water. Cheri ignored her family for the most part, but she went back to cleaning with a vigorous determination. Hemiko kept quiet, staying in her room for the most part whenever she wasn't in school. Neither Naruto or Sasuke had gotten pregnant yet - a thought that brought a sneer to Cheri's face whenever it crossed her mind. She also figured that her parent's hadn't had the chance to notice her ignoring them, though she'd tried to make it obvious - Naruto's new job kept them both too busy to have time for their kids anymore.

Cheri hadn't told her friends about what had happened, but most of them could tell that something had changed. They still agreed to help Cheri with the house, never questioning her about why she was now in such a hurry to get it done, but most of the time they avoided talking to or looking at her. Then came the day that Cheri could no longer put off finishing the one room - the room with the stain. ...the room where her grandparents had been killed.

And now that she knew exactly what the stain was, she had to fight back nausea when she saw it. Standing before this room reminded her all too well of the day that Sasuke had stood in the doorway with that stricken look on his face. She shook it off and, taking a breath, went on inside. Her friends followed her with a strange hesitation in their steps that hadn't been there before. They eyed the stain warily.

"What _is_ that?" Ayame asked with her nose scrunched.

"Is that blood?!" Kiyoshi asked. "Cool!" He bent down the examine the stain closer. Yasashiku joined him silently.

Haru and Mika both looked at the stain with similar, almost horrified expressions.

"There's no chance of scrubbing it up," Cheri said casually as she absently began to wipe one of the walls, though it hardly needed it. "We're going to paint over it." After a moment she added, "Yes, it's blood."

Haru gave her a strange look, and Mika seemed as if she wanted to say something, but she kept her mouth shut. Yasashiku stood up and shrugged like he didn't care what the hell the stain was _or_ what they were going to do with it. Kiyoshi grimaced like he was going to protest.

"Gross!" Ayame said.

"Why is there a _blood stain _on the floor?" Amaya finished for her.

Cheri shook her head. "You don't want to know." She sighed. "Now let's get to work."

Her friends looked reluctant to stop talking about the stain, but they did as she said and got out a fresh jar of paint. Cheri watched with her eyes hazed over as Yasashiku slowly painted over the blood stained wood.

It didn't take long to finish up the room. The floor had needed painting over, and the ceiling had needed a bit of cleaning up, but other than that there was really nothing wrong with it. The door, of course, creaked when they opened it, but most of the doors back in that part of the house did, and they could live with that. So, taking all their cleaning supplies, her friends began working on the next hallway, and Cheri gave a sigh of relief, glad that they were moving on. She did hope, however, that they wouldn't run into any similar stains in any of the rest of the rooms.

As they were in the process of working on the third and fourth rooms of the new hallway - they got finished so quickly by splitting up and tackling two rooms at a time - Hemiko joined them. Everyone popped their heads out of the doorways into the hallway as Cheri confronted sister. "Uh... I was thinking, maybe I can help?" Hemiko asked, glancing around at Cheri's friends.

Cheri looked at her suspiciously. "Why?" she demanded flatly.

Hemiko looked down at the floor. "Well... I've just been thinking a lot lately. And I was thinking that I should do... whatever I can. I feel like I need to."

Cheri scoffed and rolled her eyes, walking back into one of the rooms as if she were going to deny her sister the opportunity to work. However, a second later she reappeared with a bucket and mop, and shoved them into Hemiko's hands. "Start on the hallway floor, okay? We're working on the rooms. When you get finished with that I'll give you some rags and stuff to clean the walls with."

Hemiko didn't argue. In fact, she looked grateful. She smiled a little at her sister. "Thanks, Cheri," she said. Slowly, she got to work.

Cheri was as confused by this as her friends were, so when they turned to her questioningly, she had no answers for them. But she wondered idly how long it would take for Hemiko to give it up - if Cheri remembered correctly, her sister didn't exactly like getting her hands dirty.

Cheri and her friends soon got used to Hemiko being around whenever they cleaned, though nobody really talked to her. Hemiko didn't seem to care, though. She just stayed quiet and did whatever Cheri told her to do. Other than that, nothing changed. Hemiko began going out with her friends after school again, but she never abandoned her duties at the house. Cheri kept cleaning and ignoring her fathers.

Then one day, Mika and Haru stayed to talk with Cheri after everyone else had left. Hemiko watched questioningly as if she wanted to stay too, but Cheri gave her a look that sent her on her way. "What's up, guys?" Cheri asked warily.

Her two friends shared a look. "We've been meaning to ask you..." Mika started. She didn't continue.

"What is it?" Cheri asked.

"Well," Haru started. "You know that one room we cleaned up a few days ago? The one with the blood on the floor?" Cheri felt a little of the color drain from her face. She nodded, but didn't say a word. "You know what that was all about, right? Your parents told you what happened here?"

Cheri stared at the two of them for a long moment. "How do you know about that?"

They shared another look. "My mother told me," Mika said. "She knows a lot about Sasuke."

Cheri's eyes scanned the recently cleaned floor. _Yeah, she would,_ she thought. _They used to tell me about Sakura's old crush on Sasuke._ Of course by "they" she meant her fathers.

Haru spoke next. "I heard my dads talking about it once."

_Didn't both of his fathers used to be my dads' teachers?_ Cheri wondered.

"I don't think any of the others know about it," Mika said after a moment of silence.

"Good," Cheri said. "I don't want them to know. They might get freaked out."

"Well... it is a little weird," Haru said.

"You're telling me," Cheri agreed with a grimace.

"Did you just find out about it?" Mika asked. "You started acting different and everything. And then, you seemed like you didn't want to go in that room for a while, the one with the blood..."

"Yeah," Cheri snapped. "I _just_ found out about it. Apparently our fathers feel that Hemiko and I aren't... important enough to tell things to." She knew she sounded childish, but still, Cheri couldn't help but be mad.

Mika patted her comfortingly on the arm. Cheri sighed. "Just don't tell anyone else, okay?"

Mika and Haru both agreed. They left. Cheri stood there in the empty hallway for a long time after they were gone, feeling more alone than she ever had in her entire life.

* * *

Cleaning of the house was almost done, and it surprised the hell out of Cheri. Sure, they'd been working on it for months already, but it was a _big_ house - a mansion. Was a few months enough to get the whole thing finished with? Just a few more hallways were left, then maybe a few more touchups here and there, and they would be finished for good. Cheri felt kind of sad about it in fact. She'd miss having her friends around so much.

As far as family issues went, Hemiko was still around, helping with the cleaning everyday. Cheri was sure, though, that her sister was bursting with impatience - ready for all this to be done. She never complained though, which was good, or else Cheri would have just told her to get the hell over it - she'd committed to something and she would stick with it dammit.

Also, Cheri could tell that she was worrying Naruto by still not speaking to either he or Sasuke, but at the moment her important-Hokage-father just didn't have time to deal with it, so she went on with her life as if she didn't notice that anything was wrong.

Then one day, things changed. The date had snuck up on Cheri; the very last day of school at the ninja academy. They'd be graduating, and in a few weeks afterward, they'd all be presented with their ninja headbands and split into their teams. In a way, it was kind of saddening, and in another, exciting. Cheri couldn't _wait_ until the moment when she could be referred to as a _true_ ninja of Konoha. She'd always looked up to her fathers, had always wanted to wear their headbands - though they'd never let her.

And it was over just like that. The very last day. Her friends all smiled tentatively at one another as the school day let out for the final time, and silently Cheri said her goodbyes to the place that she had attended for so long. It was time to move on and do something new.

* * *

The next day while cleaning, (though Hemiko wasn't with them that day, it was the first time she'd skipped out), Cheri and her friends discovered something they hadn't expected. An ordinary door near the end of one hallway opened up to a flight of concrete stairs in the dark. Her friends, standing all huddled up behind her, whispered amongst themselves, wondering if they should explore. "It's probably haunted," Yasashiku said offhandedly. Mika squealed dramatically and clung to one of Ayame's arms. An expression of faint horror crossed Ayame's features as she stared down into the darkness. "What if it _is_ haunted?" Amaya asked, clinging to Ayame's _other_ arm.

Cheri felt a bit disappointed in her friends - she'd thought they'd been a little more mature than that. "Come on, you guys," she encouraged them, not bothering to hide the annoyance she felt. "It's worth investigating."

And yet as Cheri planted her foot on the first stone step, she felt a shiver go up her spine. The darkness consumed the rest of the stairs below - she hesitated to take the second step. Cheri knew more than her friends how well this house _could_ be haunted.

Then, she shook it off, and turned to take a lit oil lamp from Haru. Together, she and her friends began to make their way down into the darkness.

Even with several lit lamps, the darkness felt suffocating. Nothing was visible except for the next few steps down, and if Cheri didn't have one of her hands on the wall next to her while she walked, she would swear that the two or three steps in front of her were all that existed - even as she walked on, there was never anything more but those two or three steps. Determined to reach the bottom of the stair, she kept going, but she felt as if she were walking on a few never-ending self-replacing steps. There were no sounds except for her friends' heavy breathing, and Mika's occasional stumbling. Finally, Cheri paused once as the thought crossed her mind - what if they _never_ reached the bottom? What if there was no bottom to reach? Impossible thoughts, but down there in the darkness she couldn't quite contain the icy fear she felt in her stomach. If it weren't for her friends' anxious faces, still huddled together in a group behind her, she would have turned and ran right then and there.

Taking a breath to calm herself, Cheri kept walking.

Down the next few steps, she was suddenly glad she _hadn't_ stopped. The tiny light of the lamp in her hand now revealed a smooth, concrete floor. Feeling somewhat relieved, even though she was still surrounded by darkness on all sides, Cheri stepped down from the last step and turned to her friends. "Okay," she said, and her voice seemed unusually loud. "Let's split up and see what this place is."

There was no need to walk very far, though. They were in a narrow hallway, and the stone walls were as smooth as the floor. "Maybe we should turn around," Mika suggested, her voice meek and shaking slightly. The girl was looking off down the stone hallway - there was nothing to be seen beyond the darkness, and Cheri had a feeling that this hallway, like the steps before it, would also seem never ending if they attempted to walk it.

Cheri examined her friends' faces, and she could see that they were all as ready as Mika to turn around and go back upstairs. She took another deep breath. "No," Cheri said. "If we turn back now, coming this far already would have been pointless." Then she paused and added, "If any of you want to go back up, you can, but I'm going on." She sounded determined, but she _felt_ afraid.

Trying hard not to let her nervousness show, Cheri turned away from her friends and started down the hallway. Once again, they let her lead the way. None of them broke away from the group to go back upstairs - nobody wanted to trek the staircase alone. "Feel the walls for a light switch while we're walking," Cheri advised her friends.

Thankfully, it was not a very long hallway, or else Cheri would have gone insane. At the very end wall was a wooden door. No one had found any light switch. The door looked very old, and the handle was dusty and rusted. Cheri was used to the dust by now though, so she didn't hesitate before she reached out and yanked the heavy door open. Out of nowhere she had felt the strangest urge of determination to just get this all over with.

The door creaked slowly open. There was nothing beyond - just blackness. More reluctant now, Cheri went in, followed by her nervous friends.


	6. Unwilling Forgiveness

_**Disclaimer:**__ I don't own Naruto_

* * *

What was beyond the door was obviously an open room. Cheri could feel it - everyone could. _This_ was no narrow hallway. A bit of the tension flowed out of them. "Let's look around," Cheri said, feeling now more curious than afraid. She assumed that all her friends felt the same way, because they immediately split. Amaya went one way holding hands with Yasashiku, Ayame followed Cheri, and Haru and Mika went yet another way.

_First thing's first,_ Cheri thought. She began feeling the walls for a switch. Some light would be very comforting at this point. From somewhere in the darkness came the sounds of soft scurrying. "What was that?!" sounded Amaya's voice in a loud, high-pitched screech. Sounds of more scurrying. Ayame and Cheri paused for a moment to listen.

"Just a few rats," said Yasashiku's voice in a bored tone.

Cheri smiled to herself, and caught Ayame smiling too. Then there was another sound - a heavy door being yanked on in the darkness. They stopped again. After a few moments, Haru said, "I think we're in a basement you guys," but his voice sounded muffled. "I just found a wine cellar." A low whistle. "This is some pricey stuff back here - oh!" Suddenly there was a tiny click, and then there was light! The large room was illuminated at one end - the little cellar that Haru had found was now perfectly visible. He stood next to Mika, grinning, with a light switch cord in his hand. Also, Cheri could now see Yasashiku and Amaya at the opposite side of the room, smiling a little.

Haru and Mika stepped out of the little lighted space, examining the large concrete room with new eyes. Now Cheri could see, they _were_ in a basement. The entire large room was littered with dark shapes like boxes, and unknown objects of different shapes and sizes.

Cheri sighed heavily, but she was smiling. "Well, looks like we've got more work to do."

* * *

After dinner that night, Cheri was catching up on some reading when Sasuke showed up at her bedroom door. Cheri usually didn't like to stay in her room much anymore, not since Sasuke had revealed his childhood past to her and Hemiko, but she had fixed up the place _a lot._ Her room almost wasn't recognizable anymore. She and her friends had moved out all the old furniture that had been left in this room from before, and they had put _in_ all the furniture from the room she'd used to sleep in that was next to Hemiko's. Also, the walls had fresh coats of paint - as well as the floor, just in case - and now their were bright yellow curtains hanging from newly clean windows, allowing the sunlight to stream in. Cheri's first impression of the curtains had been that she loved the color of them - she'd heard that apparently her father Naruto had had a thing for the color orange when he was young, well now apparently _she_ was taking a shine to yellow. Not that that was of any importance, really.

Sasuke knocked lightly on the doorframe to her bedroom, and then stepped inside as she frowned at him. Cheri and her friends had not told Sasuke and Naruto about the basement they had found, nor had they told Hemiko. As a matter of fact, they had told Hemiko that they didn't need her help anymore - no really, they were _fine._ Ugh. Stupid Hemiko, always having to stick her big nose in everything that Cheri did. So anyway, Cheri and her friends were planning on taking more lights - probably oil lamps for the most part, she doubted there was electricity down there at all - to the basement the next day so that they would be more able to explore.

Now Sasuke was shutting her bedroom door behind him, and he crossed the room to sit on the edge of her bed. Cheri ignored him and pretended to read her book. He just looked around the room, not saying a word. _Finally_, just moments before she was about to snap and demand to know why he was even in there at all if he wasn't even going to say anything, Sasuke broke the silence. "I like what you've done with the place," he commented.

She figured he was talking about the room. "Yeah," she said.

"I don't just mean this room, I mean this whole side of the house. I'm impressed. It's... different from the way it was in my memories, and that's very good. Maybe we'll start using this part of the house again." _Oh is that right? _Cheri thought darkly. _Me and my friends work our butts off to get this place looking habitual again, and as soon as we're finished and it's convenient for you, you're just going to "move in"?_

As if reading her mind, Sasuke said, "Well, we wouldn't want all your hard work to go unappreciated." He smiled halfheartedly. "But you know, this isn't what I came to talk to you about."

_Figured that,_ she thought.

"You know," he continued, "Naruto's very sad that you don't seem to trust us anymore."

She made a face at that. _I don't "seem to?" There's no "seem to" about it._ "Well, looks like Naruto's just going to have to be sad then," she said, though she couldn't quite prefect the coldness in her voice. Somehow Naruto still managed to be her favorite father. She swallowed hard and turned another page in her book, reminding herself to go back and find her place later.

"Cheri, look, I'm not very good at these kinds of talks, as you might imagine. I'm sorry we kept things from you, but we had good reason and we never meant to _hurt_ anybody, especially not our own daughters. We told you everything, we said we're sorry. There's no need for you to go on being so stubborn."

"Oh so now I'm being _stubborn_," she scoffed angrily.

His expression darkened a bit. "Yes, you are, and I think you _know_ you are. So why don't we grow up and stop this foolishness now?"

Cheri looked at her father for a long moment then. Suddenly she wondered, why was Sasuke even here at all? Why was it _Sasuke_ who was in here, talking to her now? She'd figured that if anyone in this family were at all to try to convince her to forgive her parents, it would be Naruto. But where was Naruto? Off being Hokage, that's where. His precious job that had always seemed to mean so much more than his own daughter.

Anyway, Sasuke's pet was _Hemiko_, so why was he _here_ talking to the other daughter? It's not like he and Cheri had ever been that close anyway. He and Naruto had been playing favorites with them since the day that Cheri and Hemiko were born.

Suddenly Sasuke did something she didn't expect. He scrunched his nose in distaste and bent over slightly to read the cover of her book. "I thought you didn't like to read," he commented.

She closed the book with a quick snap and set it aside. "Don't try to change the subject."

He shrugged. "There wasn't really a subject to change. You were the one who wasn't saying anything." Cheri felt her face go red at that, but kept quiet.

In a way, Cheri _did_ know that she was being stubborn - that her fathers' reasons for keeping secrets _were_ good, and that she should just try to forget the whole thing, and cheer Naruto on with his new job. For a moment, she could see it played out before her eyes - Naruto coming home every day with a grin plastered to his face, while Cheri waited at the door, her grin matching his. And when he came home she would be the first to greet him. She'd give him a big hug. And whenever times were tough in Konoha she would encourage and nag at him whenever needed. Maybe Sasuke would be the pregnant one then, the stay-at-home mom - the thought nearly made her burst with laughter.

It was a good dream. But she knew it would never happen. Because as long as Hemiko was in this house, living with them, Cheri would hardly ever amount to anything. In their parents' eyes, the two could never be equal.

Sasuke stood, and she was sidetracked for a moment. "I'm really impressed with all your hard work," he muttered, looking around at the room.

Distracted by his words - curiosity tugging at her, beckoning her forward into having an actual conversation with the father who'd never seemed to care for her - she forgot for a moment that she was mad at him. "...we found an old basement today," she confessed a little grudgingly.

"Really?" Sasuke asked. His curiosity seemed perked too, now.

She nodded. "Yeah. There was even an old wine cellar down there. I don't know much about wine myself, but Haru said it looks like some expensive stuff."

And Sasuke _did_ seem impressed by that. He smiled at her. For a moment, he looked like he wanted to say something, but then he seemed to change his mind. Instead, he sat back down, a little closer to her than before. "Look," he said quietly, half-grimacing, "Naruto and I do feel horrible. We shouldn't have... kept so many things about this house from you. You were right about that at least - we should have told you more about your family. But I will _not _apologize for anything further than that.

"And about the other secret... well, you have to understand that we were going to surprise you and Hemiko with it. I'm sure that it would have excited the both of you. Besides, we... well, we were still _trying_ to... I mean, we weren't even sure if it was going to work or not, and thinking about it was really hurting Naruto. We didn't want to bring it up and cause another awkward conversation if we didn't even _know_..." He trailed off, a bit flustered.

Cheri didn't speak. She _knew_ that she was just being stubborn. But she just couldn't quite force down the familiar sting of betrayal whenever she thought about it. As if she hadn't already felt distanced from her family enough - with all of these new family secrets popping up she felt more left out than ever, and her fathers would just have to understand that. But then again... well, she could sort of understand _why_ Sasuke wouldn't want to talk about his past. And she could sort of see what he meant about letting the whole _baby_ thing be a surprise...

She shook her head. They had kept secrets from her. Hemiko might be willing to forgive and forget, but Hemiko could do that very easily. Hemiko had always been so _loved_ by their parents - by everybody, really. It must be pretty simply to forgive two people who absolutely _fawned_ over you. It was harder for Cheri.

"Look, Cheri, I didn't come in here to argue with you. I just wanted you to know that this is really hurting Naruto, a lot. He wants _your _support now more than anything."

Cheri thought for a moment. "And was he the one to suggest that you come in here to talk to me?" she asked coldly.

He scoffed, surprising her a little. "Actually, he and I disagree about something. I don't think he wanted me to talk to you, because I'm not sorry, and he is. He wants your forgiveness, and I just want you to stop being so damn stubborn." He smiled slightly. "He figured that if I said that to you, though, it would just piss you off even more, but I figured it was worth a try anyway."

She finally looked him full in the eye. "I don't get it..." she said slowly. "What do you mean you're not sorry?"

He sighed. "Honestly? I don't think that Naruto and I have any reason to apologize to you. Yes, we kept secrets from you, but we didn't mean any harm by it whatsoever. And now I'm beginning to repeat myself a little, I think, so maybe it's about time to wrap up this conversation."

Cheri fell silent again. Giving in felt too... it felt too much like surrender right now. She didn't like this raw, weak feeling - the bitter aftertaste that bowing her head and saying "sorry" would leave behind. She shook her head. "I just..." She paused, then shook her head again. "I just don't know what to think right now."

Sasuke was quite for a moment too. Then, he stood as if to leave. "Yeah, I get it," he said with a shrug. His voice sounded casual enough, but when he looked down at her he was grinning. "You're an Uchiha, and you don't want to give up your pride. Boy don't I know what _that_ feels like. You should have seen me the day that Naruto tried to convince me that he was pregnant with my babies. "

Cheri tried not to smile at the mental images in her head, but somehow she didn't quite succeed at that. A smile slipped, then suddenly, she began to laugh for no reason. It felt good. She probably wouldn't have laughed so much if Sasuke hadn't have started laughing with her. And so, strangely, the two that had never quite clicked were suddenly standing in Cheri's room, laughing together like friends. It was a strange sensation, but Cheri felt that giving up _this_ way was much easier to take than lowering her head and actually apologizing.


	7. Changing, Growing Up

_**A/N: **__Can you believe it, can you believe it...? I've gone back to my old habit of ignoring a particular story for months on end, completely giving up on it, and then randomly updating again! (After all, I did that several times to the story preceding this one...) So, woot!_

_Maybe it's better this way. Now that mah mad writing skillz have improved, perhaps I can bring the plot up a notch, and take this story into a whole new direction. Make it something exciting and actually __good__. I don't really know what I'm getting into here, but hey - sounds like fun. ^_~_

_**p.s. **__I think you should know, I was forced to take out and change a small part of chapter 5, because unfortunately, I didn't look through my story properly enough before I wrote this chapter. Therefore, I really, really had to downsize the graduation part in that chapter.... I kinda wish I could rewrite the whole story. But that's just not happenin'. Too much work._

* * *

Time passed with an uncanny slowness. Cheri and Hemiko, since they had finally graduated, were now officially Genin. Their father -Sasuke- attended the ceremony the day they received their Leaf Village headbands. Naruto, however, couldn't make it because he was busy with his duties as the new Hokage. Cheri didn't blame him though - her little talk with Sasuke had finally convinced her to stop being so cold toward her other father. Not to mention, she was strangely beginning to feel the days go by, and it gave her time to really think things through and look at them from another perspective. Whenever she got home that afternoon, Cheri went to her room and looked into her reflection, serious blue eyes - so much like her father's - staring back at her.

Everything felt as though it had rather suddenly, and conveniently fallen into place - like a feather drifting down until it finally touched upon the surface of a deep pool of hidden emotions. The loneliness Cheri had always felt among her family, the distance between her and her sister, the relationship she shared with every one of her dear friends... everything came into clearer focus, and she began to accept, as well as to be satisfied with. Cheri really felt - or at least, she hoped - that she was finally growing up. She was considered a true ninja of Konoha now - a protector of the village; and she should act like one, too.

The graduating class of the ninja academy was placed onto their teams shortly after the ceremony. Cheri and Hemiko were placed together, which was kind of irritating. It was enough that they had to put up with one another at home. However, the other twin girls - Ayame and Amaya - were sadly split up. Amaya would be on the team with Cheri and Hemiko -their's was called Team 3- and Ayame would be put into a team with Yasashiku. How ironically and horribly matched - (seeing as _Amaya _was the one with the crush on Yasashiku).

Cheri was sympathetic for her two friends. The moment that it was announced that Amaya and Ayame would be on separate teams, the two twin girls stared at one another in shock, clasping hands and about to cry already. _They_ were the ones who should have been placed together. A day later on, Cheri would happen to overhear a conversation between two of their former academy teachers, discussing the matter. _"It's for the best," _they would say. _"The Hyuga girls need to learn to live _apart_ from each other, while the Uchiha girls need to learn to live _with_ each other."_

That night, when Cheri confided in her family at the dinner table how she felt bad for the twin girls, Hemiko announced rather bluntly that she was quite unsympathetic. "They'll be perfectly fine, you're just being overdramatic. They're sisters - it's not like they're not going to be seeing each other every day anyway."

Cheri stared coldly at her. "Your attitude makes me wish that they had put _us_ on separate teams. Honestly I don't know how they're going to expect me to trust _you_ with my life." Hemiko snickered at her, and opened her mouth to make another remark, but their fathers stepped in then and put a stop to the slight argument. It wasn't as if Cheri and Hemiko had ever actually _really_ fought before - not with their fists anyway; but Cheri felt that if Hemiko continued acting like this, it was going to inevitably happen.

Then, one hot Wednesday afternoon, Team 3 gathered together for the first time, to meet their new sensei. The three girls were anxious to see the man or woman whom they would be spending so much of their time with over the next years. They all silently worried what their sensei would be like.... It did not take long for him to show. The girls had gotten there early - he was on time. Unknowingly to Cheri and Hemiko, their meeting spot was the exact same place where Sasuke, Naruto, and Sakura had spent their very first day with Kakashi Hatake - a full nineteen years before.

Their sensei's name was Shinichi Hoshida. He had a strange shade of purple hair that Cheri had never seen on a man before, and his bangs half-hid one of his eyes. The man was tall and thin, muscular in an unobvious way, and young for a sensei. Cheri was relieved by his easygoing manner. As they all got to know him better she realized, even that very first day, that their sensei was an odd fellow. He had a weird way of doing things, but he had a funny personality too and it was impossible not to get along with him. That day, sensei and students simply spent getting to know one another, and Shinichi-sensei treated them to ramen at Ichiraku's.

The man who had run the ramen shop while Cheri and Hemiko were growing up - Teuchi Ichiraku - had finally retired from it some years ago and died. It had been heartbreakingly sad, because Naruto and Cheri had spent much of their time together at Ichiraku's when she was little, and Teuchi had always been so nice to her - like a grandfatherly figure. Hemiko, who had rarely gone to the ramen shop with them in those days, hadn't even attended the funeral.

Ichiraku's was now run completely by Teuchi's daughter, whose name, ironically enough, was also Ayame. She and Cheri were good friends - Ayame had even babysitted her a time or two while Cheri was young. In celebration of her becoming a Genin, Ayame served their ramen free of charge. "You look so grown up, Cheri-chan," she said with a happy smile. The woman had changed since the death of her father, but thankfully had kept her cheerful personality, and rumor also had it that she would be getting married soon.

That night, Cheri and Sasuke waited up for Naruto to come home - he was working late again, and his family knew how all the sudden paperwork he had to do gave him headaches. For about half an hour, Hemiko waited as well, but she quickly became bored and decided to go to bed. Cheri watched her sister's retreating back in disdain. Was Hemiko too good now to even wait for their father - the new Hokage? She should be proud, as the rest of his family were. And yet, once again, Hemiko could only think of herself. Cheri thought, she was so tired of putting up with her selfish sister. It was getting easy to ignore her expected, thoughtless and conceited actions.

Naruto was the one who shook her awake, a few hours later. Cheri hadn't even been aware of drifting, and it was kind of embarrassing, considering that before she'd fallen asleep, she'd been thinking badly of her sister for not waiting up herself. Naruto smiled gently when she opened her eyes. He was crouched down on the floor near her by the couch - Sasuke was still sitting next to her, and her two fathers were looking down at her with warm eyes. Somehow, Cheri had never felt more loved. She felt her face flush a little, as she sat up and smiled genuinely back.

"Your father has been working so hard all night and he hasn't even had supper yet," Sasuke commented, somewhat slyly. He crack a smile. "I say we make him something nice, and eat with him so he won't have to sit alone."

"Like... have a big dinner?" she asked quietly. "In the middle of the night?" This gentle atmosphere had such an effect on her - she was still sleepy, too.

"Why not?" Cheri's fathers smiled at one another lovingly. It was an amazing thing, and Cheri could only wonder at it. Sometimes it just felt like her dads were two teenagers who were crazily in love; it was nothing like the relationship between two people who had already been married for almost fifteen years. But it was only sometimes that she caught glimpses of those moments, and to be in the presence of one like that, to be a part of it.... Why hadn't Cheri noticed such things before? It had only been a few weeks since graduating from the academy, and yet somehow she felt as if that had been part of a completely different lifetime. These fathers who loved her, and her sister, and each other so much - how could she have ever been hateful toward them? She realized that at that time, she'd been being every bit as selfish and immature as Hemiko was.

"What about Hemiko?" her father, Naruto, asked softly.

"She went to bed earlier," Sasuke replied, still smiling. "Should we go wake her up?"

Naruto considered that for a moment, then shook his head. "No. It's probably best to just let her sleep." He turned to Cheri. "Your first training with your team begins tomorrow, and you're going to need as much rest as you can get tonight. I'm glad you waited up for me, but maybe you should go to bed now too...?"

Cheri shook her head insistently. "No way," she protested. "I've got a lot of stamina most of the time. I'll be just fine!" Still, when her fathers' heads were turned, she had to rub at her eyes sleepily.

You know, Cheri thought, maybe she wouldn't mind to have a younger sibling. Were her fathers still trying? Had her and Hemiko's initial disapproval made them change their minds already? She hoped not. After all, the Uchiha mansion was quite large, and Sasuke was still planning on beginning to use the parts she and her friends had took so much effort to clean up. They would need to start adding on more family members, in order to fill such a big place.

* * *

Unable to sleep, Hemiko had ended up waiting up anyway. She was guessing it was already sometime in the hours of the early morning, when it began to rain lightly. As mentioned before, it had been a hot day that day, and sunny sometimes, but earlier she'd seen the clouds rolling in. Thunder was beginning to quietly sound way off somewhere, when Hemiko finally left her room. She was curious as to whether her father Naruto had come home yet or not.

To her great surprise, she found the rest of her family all in the kitchen, cooking and eating and laughing happily. They were smiling at one another in a weird way that she couldn't quite describe, and whenever her sister's back was turned, her father Sasuke touched Naruto's face and stole a quick kiss. Hemiko had never before witnessed anything like it. Her fathers, and her sister, so... carefree. They looked like they were making a big sort of dinner - so why hadn't they come to her room for her?

Hemiko had already been feeling down to begin with, but this was really the icing on the cake. Since graduation... well, actually, since the day that she learned the secrets of the Uchiha past, things had ever so slowly began to change in her life. She had spent all that time away from her friends, working with Cheri and _her_ friends on the mansion - Hemiko had grown away from them. She and her friends hardly spoke now, though she couldn't really understand why. Even at the ceremony, when they'd gotten their headbands, her friends had smiled and laughed, and she'd stood near them.... But she'd felt so out of the group, so misplaced standing there. None of them acknowledged her, other than saying hello and goodbye. And now here was her family, who were enjoying such a sweet looking time together, without her. It felt like everyone was forgetting about her. The uncovering of family secrets had only been the start of it, and now Hemiko felt like she was sinking... sinking into herself.

Upon seeing the way that her blonde headed father tapped Cheri's new ninja headband, Hemiko suddenly remembered that her own headband was lying forgotten on her dresser. She'd taken the thing off as soon as she'd gotten home, because it was uncomfortable to wear on her forehead, and it looked kind of ridiculous on her anyway. She found that she didn't really want to wear it. Probably, she just wasn't going to.

She supposed she was officially considered a "ninja" now, wasn't she? But that thought made her want to snicker. Ninja were highly skilled adults, looked upon with importance by the village and the Hokage. Hemiko and the others - they were all just a bunch of kids. What could they do? She didn't feel special or important at all. Why did they even have to wear the stupid headbands anyway? She felt so small putting the thing on - as if it emphasized her insignificance that much more.

Hemiko leaned against the wall, next to the kitchen doorway, and slid to the floor, listening to the sounds of her little family chatting happily away....

Shinichi-sensei seemed really nice, though. Hemiko smiled at the memories. He was silly and unusual, but attractive too. She thought, she wouldn't mind going to training, if it meant seeing him everyday. His face was... pleasing to the eye, and she had definitely noticed. He was so easy to laugh with. She wondered if _he _would make her feel forgotten too. Would she even be any help to her team? Hemiko had to admit, it felt she hadn't learned much at school. Maybe it was because she hadn't really paid attention. She had managed to pull off most of the things she needed to pass - but she'd just _barely_ passed - something that not even her family knew. Most of her accomplishments at the academy had been through sheer dumb luck. Could she even _be_ a ninja? No. That was it. She simply wasn't qualified for it, and her team, along with the rest of the world, would end up forgetting her as well....

A small tear trickled down her cheek at the sound of her family's lighthearted laughter. With a sigh that no one would hear, Hemiko made her way back to her room, and stood alone at the dark window, one hand pressed to the glass so that she might feel the rain. It felt like there would be a glass like that, although much, much thicker, between her and everything that she had ever wanted.

* * *

The next morning, Cheri woke with heavy eyelids to the sunshine pouring in through her bedroom window. She checked the time, only to see that she had but an hour before she would have to leave to meet with Amaya and Shinichi-sensei. Just enough time for a quick shower and a small breakfast - although, before falling asleep the night before, she'd honestly thought that she was stuffed enough to never eat again.

She moved sluggishly. Stamina or no, she definitely had not had enough comfortable sleep last night. She showered first, and then made her way to the kitchen, where, strangely enough, she was met by an extraordinarily beautiful black-haired brown-eyed woman.

Cheri thought, she couldn't remember ever seeing the woman before in her entire life, and yet, there was something oddly familiar about her. The woman's hair was very long and flowing, her skin was pale and her eyes were large. She was slender, and not very big breasted, but she made up for that in sheer _beauty_. Cheri and the woman blinked at one another in surprise for a moment - the woman seemed sort of bewildered, like she was lost or confused or something. "Uhh..." Cheri really didn't know what to say. Was there a reason for this random woman to be in her house?

Suddenly, a great blush bloomed over those pale cheeks, and in that instant the woman was so adorable that Cheri had the strangest impulse to just hug her. Still the woman didn't say a word.

"Sasuke?"

Cheri turned around at the sound of her father's voice. Naruto was standing just behind her in the kitchen doorway, staring with wide blue eyes at the stranger. _Why...?_ she had he said _"Sasuke"_?

And a realization hit Cheri like a horse kicking her in the chest. She spun frantically back to the woman, looking closely this time for small similarities. Before, Cheri had been to distracted by that woman's beautiful face to notice at all that she was wearing boy clothes -- her _father's_ boy clothes. Cheri gasped, a long and loud gasp, and suddenly her father Naruto was rushing up and flinging his arms around that woman. She could hear strangled sobs coming from her blonde father's throat.

"What's going on...?" Hemiko asked, coming into the kitchen now as well. As for Cheri, she was too stunned to do anything more than look her sister's way. How could she possibly find the words for an explanation?

Their father, Sasuke, was pregnant.

* * *

Surprised beyond words. Shocked beyond thought. Stunned beyond movement. That was how Hemiko felt as she walked with her sister to where her team was meeting that day. As it was, they were running late. It wasn't every day that one woke up to their father suddenly changed into a pregnant woman. Hemiko found herself constantly thinking, again and again, _How can this be...?_ She'd seen him just the night before, in the kitchen. And he had been very much male at the time, she was sure. Now he was to be a woman for the next nine months? Hemiko knew the story well enough, about how she and her sister were born this way, but that didn't mean it wouldn't take some getting used to. Neither of the sisters had actually ever _seen_ either of their fathers in female form before - until now.

And besides, Hemiko didn't want a little brother or sister. Just having one sibling was enough to handle already. Cheri was always constantly _nagging_ at her for all the things she apparently did wrong. It was so annoying. And babies were annoying too. She'd seen plenty of them - in town and such. Always crying or wanting their parent's attention. Again it felt as if Hemiko's family were moving on without her. They would have as many children as they wanted, and forget all about her.

Contrary to the way that Hemiko felt, Cheri was positively _beaming_. Honestly she was like a little ray of perfect sunshine. Hemiko could have just slapped her. Cheri's happiness only proved everything that Hemiko had been feeling - because obviously, if her sister were happy, it meant that Hemiko herself was miserable.

Hemiko didn't _want_ to have a normal set of parents - one female, one male. She knew that her fathers had been trying to have another baby for a while - as they had told her the night that they'd told the Uchiha secret. Still, even though it was unusual, and her (former?) friends all laughed at her about it, Hemiko had always been quite proud of having two male parents. It was unique; special - something that no one else had. (Well, unless you considered that... Hatake kid. Cheri's friend - what's-his-name. And Hemiko, of course, _didn't_ consider him at all).

But now things were going to be so weird at home. A pregnant female Sasuke, and the Hokage Naruto. How many nights would Hemiko spend alone in her room like she had the night before? Sasuke - her favorite father - seemed to have grown attached to Cheri for some reason, and didn't pay much attention to her anymore. How many nights would the two of them stay up together, waiting for Naruto to come home from work again while Hemiko was left to her own devices?

It was sad. Lonely thoughts for such an early, bright day. The sky had rained itself out in the night, and the clouds were all gone, though the ground was still muddy and gross. It was hot again too. If Hemiko were not so concerned about appearances, she would have tied her long hair up that morning. However, she thought her greatest attribute was her beautiful soft hair, so she never even _considered_ putting it up - not for any occasion. She liked it down, where people could see and marvel at it.

At least one thing about the morning was not so bad. When they came upon the meeting place - in a clearing, among the trees just outside of Konoha - Amaya was not there yet, but their sensei was waiting. Hemiko smiled a little upon seeing him, and he smiled back. He was standing there with his hands in his pockets and face to the sky. He had a blank sort of look in his eyes, but Hemiko didn't really care about that. Yes, he did seem like a daydreamer, but she could tell that he wasn't stupid, and he was really nice. He smiled too much though, and sometimes at the most inappropriate seeming moments.

"Hello," he greeted with that smile. Hemiko gave him a tentative, flirtatious look, to which his expression didn't change in the slightest. He appeared to take it in for just a second, and then he abruptly turned to Cheri. "Good morning."

Cheri laughed. "Yes, it is a good morning!" she replied with a happy light in her eye. Her overexcited-ness was annoying, too. How could someone be so happy about _training,_ and about odd things like _fathers _getting pregnant? Not to mention - Hemiko's pride was now seriously damaged by Shinichi-sensei's obvious ignorance of her attempts to flirt a little. "Sensei, guess what happened!" Cheri continued to exclaim. _Oh here we go, _Hemiko thought, and she just wished she could ignore this conversation. However, nosy as she was (yes, she knew that she was nosy, and she _liked_ being that way, thank you very much), she could not resist the temptation of seeing Shinichi-sensei's reaction whenever Cheri gave him the news.

"What, what?" he said excitedly, leaning in and bouncing a little on his toes. Another weird thing about him; he seemed to easily catch on to other people's moods and emotions, and act them out himself as well.

"Sensei, my father's pregnant!"

Shinichi-sensei's eyes grew very large for a second, and then he straightened up, touching his chin thoughtfully. "Well," he said. "That's certainly one I've never heard before." Abruptly, he smiled again. "Good for you!"

Hemiko looked at the man incredulously. How could he be so calm and casual and easygoing about this? True, he had probably learned of Cheri and Hemiko's unusual family situation by now anyway, but still.... One would expect a more satisfactory reply - like shock. Shinichi noticed her look at him then, and he smiled her way.

Hemiko scoffed, and blushed, turning so that she wouldn't have to look at him. So her sensei would ignore her trying to flirt, but he would smile when she looked at him like he was crazy? What a weird guy. She thought he was cool, and handsome besides, but it was possible that his personality - though quite enthralling at first - would become a nuisance and an irritation later on.

"Amaya!" Cheri said then, and Hemiko turned in time to see her sister running up to the other girl. Amaya was just walking into the little clearing, smiling a little. "Guess what!"

Hemiko sighed heavily. This was going to be a very long and miserable day - she could sense it already.

Shinichi-sensei pleasantly asked her then, "Well, now that the last of us are here, what say we get started?"


End file.
